Leagoo has been in the market for the past few years, building a reputation as an affordable smartphone maker. I personally have been checking out the devices from this brand for the past couple of years and so far the company has done a decent job of releasing value for money smartphones. A few months back, Leagoo released one of the best entry-level handsets in the market, the Leagoo M5 Plus and today, I have finally got my hands on the M5 Plus for a review.

In the Box:

Before we start this Leagoo M5 Plus review, I will have to mention that the phone came with all the usual stuff that you get in a smartphone box. So, there’s the phone itself along with the charger, scratch guard (already installed on the display) and a manual in English. It is worth noting that you get headphones in the box as well, which isn’t good, but it’s still a bit decent than other stock headphones provided in the box.

DESIGN

Earlier, budget segment offered very little when it came to built and looks. However, things have taken a turn for the good in 2016, as now we have phones that compete with the likes of the premium segment despite having a cheap price tag. Leagoo M5 Plus comes in the above category and I must say that the company has done a wonderful job with the phone’s design.

The Leagoo M5 Plus is built using a combination of metal and plastic, which has become a norm these days. The quality of workmanship is top notch and plastic as well as the metal parts feel premium. Even in the front, thanks to the 2.5D curved glass, the M5 Plus manages to grab your attention. So, you will definitely be happy with the phone’s looks.

The phone is beautiful and heavy. Now, the latter part is pretty evident in your everyday usage as it weighs more than many other mid-range smartphones in the market today. While 170 grams may not be too heavy for some, it definitely takes some time getting used to. And if you are someone who texts while lying on the bed, make sure you never lose grip as the phone meeting your face won’t be a pretty sight.

The buttons are on the right, made out of metal that blends well with the metal frame. They are built well and feel tactile. There’s a camera on the front and a few sensors, and at the bottom of the display, you have three capacitive buttons. The left side of the phone is clean, the top features a 3.5mm headphone jack while at the back, you have a standard MicroUSB port.

I got the white model and the back texture is glossy. But it’s not the gloss that attracts fingerprint. So, your fingerprints won’t become a part of its subtle texture. The single LED flash, camera, speakers, as well as fingerprint are located on the back.

One thing to note in the Leagoo M5 Plus is that it’s back panel is fixed firmly. I found it hard to get the back panel off to access the SIM card and MicroSD slots.

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PERFORMANCE & BENCHMARK:

The Leagoo M5 Plus comes with MT6737 1.3GHz quad-core chip which is the latest entry level chipset from the company. It’s a decent processor for an entry level device and manages to sail through the Freeme OS without major hiccups. For $90, that’s pretty decent. Opening up apps usually take a second, which is also decent.

In the AnTuTu benchmark, the phone scores: 28942

The phone runs on FreemeOS and I have to say that it does a pretty decent job powering the UI. It’s easy to work with stock UI because it’s lighter but with FreemeOS, there are a lot of themes, icons, and animations that the phone has to power, and it’s good to see MT6737 manage this well. It may not be the smoothest UI implementations on a phone in the segment, but I personally felt very limited lag on the device.

I have tried streaming youtube videos on the device and it was pretty smooth. The app opens up quickly and the video loads almost instantly as well. As for the browsing experience, it takes a second or two to load the entire page but once it’s loaded the scrolling and pinch to zoom all work smoothly. I had only a few tabs open on Chrome and switching between them didn’t bring any issues or lag.

One feature I was particularly impressed about the Leagoo M5 Plus was its fingerprint sensor. Once I saved my fingerprint, the phone unlocks with a touch on the sensor almost instantly. Given that it is such a cheap smartphone, I am definitely impressed by its super fast sensor.

Some of the UI features are shown in the images below:

CAMERA:

Camera is never usually the selling point of low-cost Chinese smartphones, but in the past few months things have seen a bit of an improvement. Of course, it’s nowhere close to what you get from $200+ smartphones, but for a couple of occasional shots, the Leagoo M5 Plus should be enough.

What I personally found was that the 13MP camera at the back of the phone captured just average photos. Most of the times the images were slightly washed out and the colors were dull. I, personally expected the camera to perform better, at least in terms of color reproduction, but was disappointed on most occasions. And when you manage to get good colors on the image, the sensor for some reason decides not to focus properly resulting in grainy and unfocused images.

Moral of the story: You need very good lighting to capture decent images with the M5 Plus. Unfortunately, I wasn’t very lucky to get extremely good lighting in my pictures, which is why the rear camera samples don’t look too good.

Now, this should give you an indication that the M5 Plus is also not a selfie expert. But I managed to get a couple of decent ones with a little bit of effort.

The samples have been added to my Google Drive. You can check them out from here.

BATTERY:

Battery is yet another area where the Leagoo M5 Plus doesn’t shine too much. Well, this isn’t exactly surprising given that you get a small 2500mAh battery inside, which really brings you to the big questions — why is the phone so heavy?! For such a small battery phone, it’s really a pity that the M5 Plus weighs so much. The body isn’t beautiful enough to justify its weight.

Despite its small battery, note that the phone lasts about a day, thanks to the efficient MT6737 quad-core chip inside.

CONCLUSION:

If it was early 2016, the Leagoo M5 Plus would have been something that I could recommend. Heck, if they managed to bring down the weight of the phone, I would have considered the phone. But with the phone being unnecessarily heavy along with the less than impressive camera, it’s very hard to recommend the Leagoo M5 Plus. It’s yet another story of what could have been a great smartphone ruined by small factors.

Despite the above-mentioned issues, I would not take away its positive points. The Leagoo M5 Plus comes with attractive and appealing looks, the freemeOS can be called as visually pleasing for most users and finally, the fingerprint sensor works great. Yes, it’s fast and accurate almost all the time.

If you are ready to ignore the fact that the phone is super heavy, the Leagoo M5 Plus turns out to be a decent entry level handset.

Gearbest is currently selling the phone for less than $90 and you can check out the listing from here.

The post Leagoo M5 Plus Review: A Good Looking Budget Phone That Is A Bit Too Heavy appeared first on Gizmochina.

LEAGOO M series is presently made up of a trio of highly efficient, and cost-friendly range of smartphones that were all released in 2016. The M series is made up of the LEAGOO M5, M5 Plus and M8. The most cost-effective model of the three is the LEAGOO M5 released in the second half of 2016 and which co-incidentally is the best selling LEAGOO model. The model’s popularity cutting across border spanning several countries.

LEAGOO upgraded the series thus giving birth to the M5 Plus which is a little more expensive than the M5. LEAGOO M5 Plus comes with a larger display and faster 4G-enabled operation. The success of the M5 Plus also led to the release of the LEAGOO M8 which sports a 5.7-inch larger display and a huge 3,500mAh battery under its hood.

Although the three M series models are different from each other in details, they all have very similar designs and are tailored towards meeting the different needs of different persons. They are all durable, as all of them are equipped with the tough Corning Gorilla Glass 4. They also don’t lack in functionalities, packing a 0.19s ultra fast fingerprint sensor at the rear and having support for extra 128GB memory expansion.

The LEAGOO M series smartphones also come with the most excellent Freeme OS 6.0, powerful rear and front camera, super HD large display and with durable metal frame. Both LEAGOO M5 and LEAGOO M5 Plus have three radiating colors, including Champagne Gold, Galaxy White and Titanium Grey. On the other hand, there are two equally attractive colors on the M8, which is Champagne Gold and Titanium Grey.

Presently, the LEAGOO Christmas Shopping Carnival is on and LEAGOO has partnered with many well-known e-commerce websites to bring the LEAGOO M series models to consumers at very affordable, cheap price tags. The LEAGOO M series phones are limited in quantity so if you don’t grab yours now, they’ll get sold out and  won’t be available soon.

Here is the Official recognized store where you can buy the LEAGOO M series phones:

For LEAGOO M5- Buy here

For LEAGOO M5 Plus- Buy here

For LEAGOO M8- Buy here

The post LEAGOO M Series — High Cost Performance Series in Christmas Day appeared first on Gizmochina.